1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical scanning apparatus and a configuration for fixing a light source provided in an image forming apparatus that includes the optical scanning apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a photosensitive member is exposed to a light beam emitted from an optical scanning apparatus to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member, and the electrostatic latent image is developed with toner to form an image. Such an optical scanning apparatus includes a light source that emits a light beam, a laser holder that holds the light source, a polygon mirror (rotating polygon mirror) that deflects the light beam emitted from the light source to scan the photosensitive member with the light beam, and an optical box to which the polygon mirror is attached. The light source is attached to the optical box via the laser holder.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-37836 discusses an optical scanning apparatus in which a laser holder is fixed to an optical box with an adhesive, instead of fixing the laser holder to the optical box with a screw, to reduce the number of components.
However, if the laser holder is fixed to the optical box with an adhesive that is applied or dropped into a gap formed between the optical box and the laser holder, the adhesive falls off an adhesion region in a gap between the optical box and the laser holder due to the gravity before the adhesive cures, as illustrated in FIGS. 10A and 10B. If an area coated with the adhesive increases in this way, the adhesive strength per unit area decreases, and thus the laser holder may easily come off the optical box by vibration or the like.